Thor hammers home box office victory

Takes $66m from US cinema-goers

Thor thundered straight to the top of the US box office this weekend, opening with an impressive haul of $66m.

That’s not a patch on Iron Man 2 ’s $128m opening weekend this time last year, but that superhero sequel already had a built-in audience stoked after the first Iron Man – not to mention it was released in 400 more locations.

Still, it’s a decent opening for the Asgardian – and big enough to knock Fast Five (or Fast And Furious 5: Rio Heist as it’s being called on our shores) out of pole position.

The racing fivequel settled for second with $32m, streets ahead of Jumping The Broom in third, which opened with just $13.7m. Kate Hudson’s latest romcom Something Borrowed fared equally poorly, debuting in fourth ($13.2m), while Rio trailed in fifth ($9.5m).

R-Pattz and Reese Witherspoon’s Water For Elephants continued a steady run in sixth ($5.7m), as did Madea’s Happy Family in seventh ($3.8m), while Prom took eighth position with $2.5m.

Meanwhile, animated sequel Hoodwinked Too! ’s dismal run struggled along with $2.2m (and a shameful total earning of just $7m), while Soul Surfer closed out the top ten with $2.1m.